Wal-Mart to build new Supercenter in Cicero

190,000-square-foot store, to open in 2014, is 2nd project town has landed on former Sportsman's Park racetrack site

April 10, 2012|By Joseph Ruzich, Special to the Tribune

Sportsman's Park race track was razed in 2009. Its site will be home to a Walmart Supercenter. (Antonio Perez/Tribune)

A new 190,000-square-footWal-MartSupercenter is poised to come to the former Sportsman's Park racetrack site in Cicero.

Plans call for the mega-retailer to purchase 21 acres for $7.5 million near the 3400 block of South Cicero Avenue, according to town documents. An agreement is expected to be announced Tuesday.

Construction will begin in spring 2013, with the store opening in 2014, said Cicero spokesman Ray Hanania.

Hanania said Wal-Mart isn't expected to receive any tax incentives.

The project will create 400 permanent new jobs and 200 construction-related jobs, Cicero President Larry Dominick said in a statement Monday. "And that will mean more jobs for area residents," he said.

The agreement marks the second major development at the former park site. In 2011, Wirtz Beverage Illinois purchased 35 acres near 33rd Street and Laramie Avenue for $6.5 million.

Wirtz Beverage Illinois, one of the state's largest alcohol distributors and part of the family-run corporation that owns the Chicago Blackhawks, plans to open its new 600,000-square-foot center, which includes 100,000 square feet of office and conference center space, on May 2.

Wirtz received about $13 million in tax increment financing dollars from the town. It plans to spend $70 million on the new facility and to relocate about 1,000 workers to the site from its existing facilities.

Horses stopped racing at the famed Sportsman's Park racetrack in 2003, and the decades-old facility, which was renovated in its final years to accommodate auto racing, shut down soon after. The 68-acre Sportsman's Park racetrack site was talked about as a prime spot for development for years. It was demolished in 2009 by the town, which purchased the site for $16 million.

The town will continue to own 10 acres at the site, reserved for future retail expansion and development.

Wal-Mart opened its first Chicago store in 2006 in the Austin neighborhood. The retailer received City Council approval in 2009 to build two more stores on the South Side, the culmination of years of battling organized labor to expand in the city.

The two stores, one in Chatham and the other in Pullman, are 150,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenters. The Chatham location opened in January. The Pullman store is scheduled to open in 2013.

The discount chain also plans to roll out dozens of small stores in the city in the next several years. The small stores, operating under the banners Wal-Mart Market and Wal-Mart Express, are not only new to Chicago but also most of the country.